U.S. Navy Ship, Sub Collide in Middle East’s Hormuz Strait

American Forces Press Service ^

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2009 – Two U.S. Navy vessels, a submarine and a surface ship, collided in the Strait of Hormuz today, according to a U.S. Navy news release.

The collision involved the USS Hartford, a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, and the USS New Orleans, an amphibious ship, according to a release issued by the Bahrain-based U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet.

The Hartford’s nuclear propulsion plant was unaffected by the collision.

Fifteen submariners aboard the Hartford were slightly injured and have been returned to duty, the release said. No servicemembers aboard the New Orleans were injured.

The New Orleans reportedly sustained damage to a diesel fuel tank, which caused a leakage of about 25,000 gallons of fuel.

The incident is under investigation.

The Strait of Hormuz is a relatively narrow and strategic corridor of water that connects the Middle East’s Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The Hormuz Strait is bordered by the Iranian coast to the north and the United Arab Emirates and a part of Oman to the south.

(From a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet news release.)

Related Sites:
U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet news release
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet

[SandRat]

hmmmmmmmmmmmm.................

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

I’m not sure if it was a bridge, a buoy or a lighthouse. But something stationary, and marked, was crashed into.

[naturalman1975]

Now these are the laws of the Navy,
Unwritten and varied they be
And he who is wise will observe them
Going down in his ship to the sea

As naught may outrun the destroyer
So it is with the law and its grip
For the strength of a ship is the Service
And the strength of the Service the ship

Take heed what you say of your seniors
Be your words spoken softly or plain
Let a bird of the air tell the matter
And so shall ye hear it again

If you labour from morn until even
And meet with reproof for your toil
'Tis well, that the gun may be humbled
The compressor must check the recoil

On the strength of one link in the cable
Dependeth the might of the chain
Who knows when thou may'st be tested?
So live that thou bearest the strain!

When a ship that is tired returneth
With the signs of the seas showing plain
Men place her in dock for a season
And her speed she reneweth again

So shall ye, if perchance ye grow weary
In the uttermost parts of the sea
Pray for leave, for the good of the Service
As much and as oft as may be

Count not upon certain promotion
But rather to gain it aspire
Though the sightline may end on the target
There cometh perchance the miss-fire

Can'st follow the track of the dolphin?
Or tell where the sea swallows roam?
Where Leviathan taketh his pastime?
What ocean he calleth his own?

So it is with the words of the rulers
And the orders these words shall convey
Every law is naught beside this one
Thou shalt not criticise, but Obey

Say the wise: How may I know their purpose?
Then acts without wherefore or why.
Stays the fool but one moment to question
And the chance of his life passes by

If ye win through an African jungle
Unmentioned at home in the press
Heed it not. No man seeth the piston
But it driveth the ship none the less

Do they growl? it is well. Be thou silent
If the work goeth forward amain
Lo! the gun throws the shot to a hair's breadth
And shouteth, yet none shall complain

Do they growl, and the work be retarded?
It is ill, be whatever their rank
The half-loaded gun also shouteth
But can she pierce target with blank?

Doth the paintwork make war with the funnels
And the deck to the cannons complain?
Nay, they know that some soap and fresh water
Unites them as brothers again

So ye, being heads of departments
Do you growl with a smile on your lip
Lest ye strive and in anger be parted
And lessen the might of your ship

Dost deem that thy vessel needs gilding
And the dockyard forbears to supply?
Put thy hand in thy pocket and gild her -
There are those who have risen thereby

Dost think in a moment of anger
'Tis well with thy seniors to fight?
They prosper, who burn in the morning
The letters they wrote overnight

For many are shelved and forgotten
With nothing to thank for their fate
But that on a half sheet of foolscap
A fool "Had the honour to state."

Should the fairway be crowded with shipping
Beating homeward the harbour to win
It is meet that lest any should suffer
The steamers pass cautiously in

So thou, when thou nearest promotion
And the peak that is gilded is nigh
Give heed to words and thine actions
Lest others be wearied thereby
It is ill for the winners to worry
Take thy fate as it comes, with a smile
And when thou art safe in the harbour
They may envy, but will not revile

Uncharted the rocks that surround thee
Take heed that the channels thou learn
Lest thy name serve to buoy for another
That shoal the "Court-Martial Return"

Though a strong armour belt may protect her
The ship bears the scar on her side
'Tis well if the Court should acquit thee -
But 'twere best had'st thou never been tried.

As the wave washes clear at the hawse pipe
Washes aft, and is lost in the wake
So shalt thou drop astern all unheeded
Such time as these laws ye forsake

Take heed in your manner of speaking
That the language ye use may be sound
In the list of the words of your choosing
"Impossible" may not be found

Now these are the Laws of the Navy
And many and mighty are they
But the hull and the deck and the keel
And the truck of the law is - OBEY.